Greetings,
It’s E.G. Michaels with a very long overdue update.
If you were wondering when or if I was ever going to write another book, then you’re not alone. Rest assured, I have been working on my next book and I wanted to update you on what exactly that is.
But first, let me explain what part of the delay was…
A Family Member Says Goodbye…
Shortly after I released “Every Minute Counts” in May, my family and I had to say goodbye to our 11 year old Black Mouth Cur, Abby.
Besides being the resident alpha dog for our family, Abby was the inspiration for several of the dogs like Zeus and Apollo who appear in the Kyle Simmons books.
It wasn’t the first time we’d ever lost a beloved pet. But this is the first time we’ve lost one to a long battle with cancer and the experience really shook up our entire family. For me, I’d sit down to try and write and an hour later, I’d still be staring at a blank screen. Or worse, I’d have written nothing but gibberish.
So I reluctantly took a few weeks away from writing to clear my head and heart.
By late June, my wife and kids were still missing Abby terribly. I didn’t feel we were ready for another dog but they did and I was out-voted 3-1. I’m pleased to report that our house is back to three dogs with the newest family member (a hound-lab mix) quickly establishing her place in my family’s collective hearts and lifting everyone’s spirits massively.
So that’s the quick personal life update…
Now let’s talk about what I’ve been writing…
“Okay E.G, What’s The Next Book?”
A number of readers have speculated there wouldn’t be any more Kyle Simmons books. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
In July, I starting working on a new Simmons book. I was about seven thousand words into it and realized that the storyline wasn’t strong enough to work for a full novel. So as painful as it might have been to do (and believe me, it wasn’t an easy decision to make), I scrapped that early draft aside and started working on something else instead.
I realized within a few days that this new book was going to be a much better read than the scrapped one and the new story quickly grew.
So if you don’t mind, I’d like to tell you a bit more about my next book, “Gone Too Far”.
“Gone Too Far” introduces a new character, Cole “Hutch” Hutchinson. He’s a former Philadelphia police officer who was forced to take an early retirement after getting injured on the job.
Based on early reader feedback, if you like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, then you’ll love this book.
Here’s the book cover and description for it.
..
What would you do if you got a phone call that your sister had committed murder… but you didn’t have a sibling? Just how far would you go to find out the truth? When it comes to the truth, former Philadelphia police officer Cole “Hutch” Hutchinson is ready to go as far as it takes to find it.
When he receives a phone call informing him that his sister was involved in a likely murder-suicide, Hutch can’t believe a word he’s hearing. So officially, he’s heading to Ashcroft to handle his sister’s affairs.
Unofficially, he’s going to do whatever it takes to find out what really happened.
As Hutch starts digging, the body count starts to rise. Walking away would be easy but Hutch isn’t about to let someone get away with murder. It’s up to Hutch to discover what really happened in Ashcroft, a town where the lines between good and bad aren’t always clear and the bad guys have already gone too far.
I’ve finished the first two drafts of “Gone Too Far”. I will do at least one more round of revision before sending it off to my editor in the next two weeks.
Barring any unforeseen delays, I anticipate “Gone Too Far” being ready for publication around Christmas. Worst case scenario, I will be releasing it in early January.
So that’s the scoop on the new book.
Here’s what is coming after that…
I’ve been asked and I’ve agreed to write a Kindle Worlds novella for Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s extremely popular Extinction Cycle universe.
The novella will be called “Operation Freedom” and it will be released in early February. I will share more details closer to the time. Suffice to say, it will be a fast-paced story like my books frequently tend to be.
“What About Kyle Simmons?”
As I mentioned, the initial work for the next Kyle Simmons book had be tabled because I felt the storyline wasn’t strong enough to be made into a novel.
Writing “Gone Too Far” in between Simmons books has given me a bit of a creative breather from those cast of characters. I still love Simmons, Russo, and the rest of the gang but after writing five consecutive books about them… well, I needed to write about something else for a change.
The result of doing so is what gave me the stronger plot for the next Simmons book and I believe my readers will enjoy a better book as a result.
So yes, there will be another Kyle Simmons book.
The thing is, I don’t like to have too many “works in progress” going at once because it greatly increases the likelihood that nothing gets completed in a timely manner.
Therefore, based on my current planned schedule, I will resume working on the next Simmons book in early February 2017. I’m aiming for a Summer 2017 release date for the next Kyle Simmons book.
Questions? Comments? Please share them below.
Until next time,
E.G.
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